Michael Cooman's recent coaching report
Barney Barnett is Coaching Michael and here is what he says about his last week...
Hi Barney,
I have had a good couple of days on the bike this weekend. Saturday arvo was the Club road race at Oakville. We had 18 starters in A grade which is a good turn out for us. I was feeling a lot better at the start than a fortnight ago and felt a lot fresher considering I did my normal Saturday morning ride in the morning.
The pace was on from the start and a breakaway of a strong group of 4 guys got away 2 laps in, the field then sat up for the next lap by which time the breakaway was starting to get a substantial gap. From there on the pace was on for the chase and I was quite happy rolling turns working with a few others to chase it down and was feeling good up the hills and on the flat. We then ended up catching the brake with 2 laps to go and from then on it was people just trying to attack and lots of surges coming into the last lap of which I was relatively comfortable dealing with.
Coming into the finish I was in a reasonable position, I then ended up in the wind a bit early and went for it and got around to the front but then I had a few others come around me and when I tried to kick again I just had nothing left. I ended up finishing around 5th or 6th which wasn't bad. Looking back I probably went too early, especially considering it’s an uphill finish, but at the same time I was happy with where I was able to position myself.
Looking at the data for this weeks race our average speed was up 2km/h from a fortnight ago which I was expecting, but I found I coped a lot better this race and at no point felt like I was going to get dropped like last time, so it’s nice to see this training really paying off.
Today's ride I could really feel the effects of a big day yesterday and felt quite tired but still managed a solid 120k.
Thanks for touching base, really looking forward to Gunedah in a few weeks, I've sorted out the accommodation and travel with the boys and can't wait!!!
Regards,
Michael Coomans
